Wednesday 22 April 2015

The Gift of Living in the Divine Will in the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta [Kindle Edition]

The Gift of Living in the Divine Will in the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta [Kindle Edition]


         

Saturday 18 April 2015

Third Sunday of Easter (B) - April 19, 2015

Shelter Belt - spring lambing    
Asia News in Audio Today
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 6:16-21.
When it was evening, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea,
embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.
When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid.
But he said to them, "It is I. Do not be afraid."
They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading. 



Let's face it — the Resurrection is unbelievable. Even seeing the risen Lord is not going to convince us otherwise. It's easier to believe in ghosts or to doubt one's own sanity.  
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Friday 17 April 2015

Father Greg Homeming, OCD - Carmelite Spirituality at Australia Oceania

COMMENT:
Carmelite - Fr. Greg; Billy, convalescing in our Infirmary, loved to listen to the Fire Tablet. After his successful operation, he is able to follow the Wi-Fi internet,  thanks to his birthday gift.

Springtide Daffodils at the altar, see from the windows the daffodils awash in the field.

                  
EC2006 - Father Greg Homeming, OCD - Carmelite Spirituality    John Porteous
Published on 8 Oct 2012
In this presentation Father Homeming talks about St Terese and Carmelite spirituality.

Fr Greg Homeming was born in Sydney. He is an Australian of Chinese grandparents. 

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Christ lives in his Church - sermon by Saint Leo the Great

15/04/2015 
Patristic Lectionary, Eastertide Night OPffice,
COMMENT: I would like to hear other interesting words of  "Christ lives in his Church - sermon by Saint Leo the Great".........

iBreviary

Office of Readings

From the Book of Revelation
2:12-29

To the churches at Pergamum and Thyatira


I, John, heard the Lord saying to me: “To the presiding spirit of the church in Pergamum, write this:

“‘The One with the sharp, two-edged sword has this to say: I know you live in the very place where Satan’s throne is erected; ....

RESPONSORY
Revelation 2:18, 23; 22:12


These are the words of the Son of God
whose eyes are like flames of fire:
I search the mind and the heart,
 and I will repay each one as his deeds deserve, alleluia.

Behold I am coming soon
and I bring my reward with me.
 And I will repay each one as his deeds deserve, alleluia.
SECOND READING

From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope
(Sermo 12 de Passione, 3, 6-7: PL 54, 355-357)

Christ lives in his Church


My dear brethren, there is no doubt that the Son of God took our human nature into so close a union with himself that one and the same Christ is present, not only in the firstborn of all creation, but in all his saints as well. The head cannot be separated from the members, nor the members from the head. Not in this life, it is true, but only in eternity will God be all in all, yet even now he dwells, whole and undivided, in his temple the Church. Such was his promise to us when he said: See, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

And so all that the Son of God did and taught for the world’s reconciliation is not for us simply a matter of past history. Here and now we experience his power at work among us. Born of a virgin mother by the action of the Holy Spirit, Christ keeps his Church spotless and makes her fruitful by the inspiration of the same Spirit. In baptismal regeneration she brings forth children for God beyond all numbering. These are the sons of whom it is written: They are born not of blood, nor of the desire of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

In Christ Abraham’s posterity is blessed, because in him the whole world receives the adoption of sons, and in him the patriarch becomes the father of all nations through the birth, not from human stock but by faith, of the descendants that were promised to him. From every nation on earth, without exception, Christ forms a single flock of those he has sanctified, daily fulfilling the promise he once made: I have other sheep, not of this fold, whom it is also ordained that I shall lead; and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

Although it was primarily to Peter that he said: Feed my sheep, yet the one Lord guides all the pastors in the discharge of their office and leads to rich and fertile pastures all those who come to the rock. There is no counting the sheep who are nourished with his abundant love, and who are prepared to lay down their lives for the sake of the good shepherd who died for them.

But it is not only the martyrs who share in his passion by their glorious courage; the same is true, by faith, of all who are reborn through baptism. That is why we are to celebrate the Lord’s paschal sacrifice with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The leaven of our former malice is thrown out, and a new creature is filled and inebriated with the Lord himself. For the effect of our sharing in the body and blood of Christ is to change us into what we receive. As we have died with him, and have been buried and raised to life with him, so we bear him within us, both in body and in spirit, in everything we do.

RESPONSORY
John 10:14; Ezekiel 34:11, 13


I am the good shepherd;
 I know my sheep and my sheep know me, alleluia.

I shall look after my sheep
and seek them out.
I shall bring them out from among the peoples
and lead them to pasture.
 I know my sheep and my sheep know me, alleluia.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Let us pray.

God of mercy,
you have filled us with the hope of resurrection
by restoring man to his original dignity.
May we who relive this mystery each year
come to share it in perpetual love.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
 Amen.

Paschal Message of Three Syrian Patriarchs

Paschal Message of Three Syrian Patriarchs
In a powerful Easter Message from Damascus, the three Syrian Patriarchs: Patriarch Gregorios III, Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II and Patriarch John X rejoice in the Good News of the Resurrection and then call for an end to the violence in the Middle East, especially Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Palestine. They appeal for greater support for Christians struggling to survive in the birthplace of Christianity and urge world governments and international organisations to assist in the search for kidnapped church leaders...

Saturday 11 April 2015

Second Sunday of Easter (or Sunday of Divine Mercy) - April 12, 2015

·           VIDEO
Sunday Gospel Reflection by Fr. Bill Grimm
·       
International
·       
April 10, 2015   
Living a Christian life takes courage. However, we need not search
for it. We have it. Each Sunday when we join the community of disciples we
take the greatest risk, that of meeting the Lord.



Gospel. John 20:19-11   
Divine Mercy Sunday  
Saint John Paul II
  1. Pope John Paul II's Divine Mercy Sunday Homily

       www.divinemercysunday.com/popes-homily.htmCached
    Pope John Paul II's Homily On the first universal celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, 2001. Divine ... Saint Faustina Kowalska saw coming from this Heart that was ...

Pope John Paul II's Homily On the first universal celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, 2001.

Divine Mercy: The Easter Gift
"Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore" (Rev 1:17-18).

We heard these comforting words in the Second Reading taken from the Book of Revelation. They invite us to turn our gaze to Christ, to experience His reassuring presence. To each person, whatever his condition, even if it were the most complicated and dramatic, the Risen One repeats: 
"Fear not!; I died on the Cross but now I am alive for evermore"; "I am the first and the last, and the living one."
"The first," that is, the source of every being and the first-fruits of the new creation; "the last," the definitive end of  history; "the living one," the inexhaustible source of life that triumphed over death forever.

In the Messiah, crucified and risen, we recognize the features of the Lamb sacrificed on Golgotha, who implores forgiveness for His torturers and opens the gates of heaven to repentant sinners; we glimpse the face of the immortal King who now has "the keys of Death and Hades" (Rev 1:18).

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever! (Ps 117:1). Let us make our own the Psalmist's exclamation which we sang in the Responsorial Psalm: "The Lord's mercy endures forever!" In order to understand thoroughly the truth of these words, let us be led by the liturgy to the heart of the event of salvation, which unites Christ's Death and Resurrection with our lives and with the world's history. This miracle of mercy has radically changed humanity's destiny. It is a miracle in which is unfolded the fullness of the love of the Father who, for our redemption, does not even draw back before the sacrifice of His Only-begotten Son. 
In the humiliated and suffering Christ, believers and non-believers can admire a surprising solidarity, which binds Him to our human condition beyond all imaginable measure. The Cross, even after the Resurrection of the Son of God, "speaks and never ceases to speak of God the Father, who is absolutely faithful to His eternal love for man. ... Believing in this love means believing in mercy" (Rich in Mercy, 7).

Let us thank the Lord for His love, ........   http://www.divinemercysunday.com/popes-homily.htm         
  

Wednesday 8 April 2015

Dom Donald's Blog: Emmaus Easter Week

 
Patriarch_Fouad_Twal_Latin_Patriarch_of_Jerusalem_Credit_Latin_Patriarchate_of_J
   This morning, Easter Wednesday 2015, the very name of Cleopas  reminded me of Sabbatical at Latroun Abbey, Emmaus, and reinforced by the time hour by Luke, "It is early evening," they said, "and the day is almost over".


As on the occasion in 2004, and traditionally the Patriarch from Jerusalem celebrates the Mass......

      

Dom Donald's Blog: Emmaus Easter Monday:       Website: Latroun perso.wanadoo.fr/augustin.tavardon/ + + + Emmaus (Nikopolis)  http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/emmaus.htm ...     

     



Wednesday, 11 April 2012


Emmaus Easter Monday

 

+ + +

Emmaus (Nikopolis)

 http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/emmaus.htm                 

Supper at Emmaus (Bassono J.)

Wednesday, 11 April 2012

Wednesday in the Octave of  Easter



Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
  
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 24:13-35.

Dear William,
Thank for the greeting from your Paschal Tide break in Parma, at the Cistercian Abbey (under1560) at FONTEVIVO.
This morning, in the Intersessions we prayed for:
"The Monks of Latroun Abbey, Israel, remembering Cleopas and his companion meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and Latronus, the Good Thief."
And at the Gospel today, I am awakened all the experiences of the Holy Land Sabbatical which surges to the surface.
Below, the account of Emmaus from the Chronicle.

Yours ...
Donald



 (Email of May 2004)
Latroon Abbey

DEAR LIAM,
- - -
Of interest is the collection of pictures which seems to use help memory.

I hope you are all enjoying Venice.
Best Paschal Tide wishes.
 ...
My time is getting short in the Holy Land  - deadline 29th May.
I should be winding down but the opposite is more the case
I could use all my days here with so much interest, and making up for 33 missed years of Biblical study.
   
News from an Email correspondent tells me that six priests in Scotland have had threats on their lives.
IT IS MUCH SAFER TO LIVE IN ISRAEL!

God Bless.


Emmaus Easter Monday 2004
On the strength of the Night Office Reading on Easter Monday, I thought this must be the special day of Latroun, the day of Latronus, the Good Thief. (“The Cross opens to us today the locked paradise. For today God introduces there, the thief. So that He achieves two great wonders; He opens paradise and he brings in the robber. He gives to him His own heritage, He leads him in to the city of his Father. “Today, he says, you will be with me in paradise” John Chrysostom).
Br. Benoit had fuller information on the situation for me. This is also Emmaus Day, recalling the Resurrection meeting of the two disciples with Jesus. What is in a name? Historically there is a whole string of ancient interpretations of the name ending with the decision of a British Cartographer fixing on Latroun. Br. Benoit looks back further than even his 86 years. In the Hebrew the ancient name signified a ‘look out’, a spot from which one could keep guard over a wide vista. The Romans had a fortress here-abouts long before the Crusaders’ Templar Toron (Tower). And before the Jordanians and Israelis were locked together in disputing the same location, evidently, the British made their mark. Maybe that Cartographer who specified Latroun on his Map was a Welsh Methodist from the Rhonda Valley. It is said that, “Lloyd-George’s political advisers were unable to train his mind on the map of Palestine during negotiations prior to the Treaty of Versailles, due to his training by fundamentalist Christian parents and churches on the geography of ancient Israel. Lloyd-George admitted that he was far more familiar with the cities and regions of Biblical Israel than with the geography of his native Wales, or of England itself” (from an essay on the British and Christian Zionism).
Emmaus
      
So bridging the gap between the Biblical origins and modern history is the Christian tradition in which Latroun is well established. Br. Benoit went on to explain that the Good Thief was named Dismas and lived nearby. His wife was Egyptian and she and the family received the faith as a result of the death of Dismas beside Jesus on the Cross. And complete this setting of the scene, the Church of Latroun is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, the transept on one side is dedicated to St. Dismas, the Good Thief, and the other transept is dedicated toSt. Cleophas and his friend, the disciples who joined Jesus at Emmaus, (Lk. 24:18, Jn. 19:25). Since the altars are stripped in good post Vatican II style, it would be nice to replace them with a good icon designed for each transept. The subjects would be very relevant even if the geography and other details may not be all that Canonical. Who is going to quibble about such problems? Certainly not His Beatitude Michel, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. He is coming the this afternoon on his Easter Monday round of the three places commemorating Emmaus, i.e. Emmaus (Latroun), Emmaus Qubeibah (OFM), and Emmaus Abu Gosh (OSB). Cleophas, according to tradition, was martyred for his faith and is also buried here. So I am quite happy with Emmaus-Nikopolus (Latroun), knowing full well that the other locations were only heard of at the time when the Crusaders first brought their own latest Exegetes from Europe.
I heard the French Gospel this morning and it mentioned a 2 hour walk from Jerusalem and that would fit perfectly - not that I intend to test it by walking. (TOB, Ecumenical Bible used in Liturgy  “Ephata – Missal of the Christian Life”, “towards a village called Emmaus, a two hour walk from Jerusalem. Lk. 24:13”. Sadly this favoured version cannot be accepted by the textual critics. )

 Community of the Beatitudes at Emmaus
In the evening of Easter Monday any of the community at Latroun who wished could go along the road to the site of the ancient Byzantine Basilica, to join the Community of the Beatitudes and the Pilgrims for this Easter Evening Mass.
While we waited for transport, Alex and I looked for a CAROB tree I was curious to identify. Sure enough there was one right there and plenty of these evergreen trees here and at Emmaus. And the HUSKS of last year were still to be seen to satisfy my curiosity about Luke  15:16, (And he would willingly have filled himself with the husks the pigs were eating but no one would let him have them), to complete a detail of the “Prodigal Son”.It is also recounted of Saint Sabas, when he first came here, to Nikopolus c. 500, that he lived off the husks and leaves of the carob tree.
Baptismal fondations of the Emmaus Basilica
Titular Bishop of Emmaus. For the Mass, there was plenty of space in the ancient nave but one could only call the congregation a “little flock”. One of the two assistant Bishops, Mgr. Marcuzzo, is based in Nazareth but he is the Titular Bishop of Emmaus. His Homily was beautifully appropriate to the place and to the occasion. He looked out on the plain of Ayalon all around us and recalled the Biblical instance here in which Joshua delayed the sun in order to attain the rout of his enemies, (Jg. 1:35, Jos. 10:12). Bishop Marcuzzo had a lovely thought on,  “Rest here a while with us”, see Lk. 24:29, drawing the parallel of the “SUN” waiting until the Israelites reached their aim, and the “SON” of God in the soul warming account of the encounter with the disciples.

Tiles preserved in the Basilica
 Incidentally, St. Cleophas’s companion is not left anonymous in the Liturgy of the Holy Land, - The name of St. Simeon appears on the stage at this point in the prayers. When it is said to be apocryphal I begin to see that the word is not entirely negative. Taken in the technical sense of an Apocryphal source it can be understood among other respected traditions.   
The evening sun, 5.00 p.m., was so hot that there was a shift of seats to allow the Bishops and Concelebrants to use the shade of the ruins. I watched the Paschal Candle, in the full blaze of sun, gradually bend over in the heat and I felt urged to move it. Eventually it wilted, and fell over - at the point where it was ‘well caught, Sir’ in one hand by one of the Brothers, who had the very ornate Patriarch’s Crosier in his other hand. - This sleepy observer picks up the most peculiar things, - and forgets the impressive things like the music.
Latroon View the Crusader Fort
The Community of the Beatitudes gave us great singing. The first two Readings were in Arabic, the Gospel in French. At the conclusion all were invited to the Museum for a ‘party’ i.e., refreshments. The mini-bus brought us and the borrowed vestments and altar fittings back home to Latroun, just as the abbey Vespers ended.



Old Crusade Fort above the Abbey